Pledge to stamp out hate crime in city

MOTION AGREED FOLLOWING A NATIONAL RISE IN ATTACKS

Councillors have pledged to stamp out hate crime in Sunderland following national spikes in attacks.

At Sunderland City Council’s last full council meeting last Thursday, the city’s Conservative group launched a bid to tackle anti-semitism.

The motion called for the council to embed the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-semitism into training for staff/councillors.

It followed a recent report which revealed hate crimes against the Jewish Community had reached a record high – with a total of 1,652 incidents last year.

However, the motion took a rocky road to approval over nearly an hour of debate.

Conservative councillor DomMcDonough,launching the motion, paid tribute to the history of Sunderland’s Jewish Community which is growing once more, he said, after decades of decline.

Following opening speeches, the meeting quickly descended into political finger-pointing over national issues.

This included alleged anti-semitism in the Labour Party and calls to investigate Islamophobia in the Conservative Party. Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Labour party leader, Jeremy Corbyn and UKIP all came under fire in the debate.

Despite political differences, a compromise was reached over the motion which was expanded to cover all forms of hate crime.

The amendment from Labour’s deputy leader on the council, Coun Michael Mordey, widened the focus to include Islamophobic hate crime, LGBT+, transphobic and disability hate crime.

Coun Mordey said Sunderland has one of the lowest levels of hate crime in the region.

But he added partnership work was ongoing to tackle the issue – including a new awareness scheme involving “hate crime champions”.

One potential solution to online abuse, he explained, could include government laws regulating social media.

He told the meeting: “Every single member in this chamber should be concerned with eliminating hate crime in its totality, not just one element that would give you a cheap political point.”